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In a move that was anticipated for weeks, the New York Mets officially hired Sandy Alderson as their next General Manager on Friday. The Mets signed Alderson to a four-year deal with a club option for 2015.

Despite the Mets interviewing candidates like Rick Hahn, Allard Baird, and Josh Byrnes, Alderson was the Mets’ guy from the beginning. Alderson is a Bud Selig guy and the Wilpons are Selig guys, so this was a match from the beginning.

Outside of hiring a manager, here are the four things Alderson needs to do right off the bat.

1. Eat the contracts of Oliver Perez and Luis Castillo. These guys represent the worst of the Minaya era and need to be released. They bring down the clubhouse and nobody wants them around.

They need to be gone at any cost.

2. The same can be said for closer Francisco Rodriguez. Rodriguez has about $15 million remaining on his contract when you consider his $3.5 million buyout for 2012, but after what happened this year there is no way the Mets can bring him back.

3. Pick up the $11 million club option on Jose Reyes. I am a firm believer that Reyes will never be the player he was from 2005-2008, but the Mets need him to regain some trade value. It would do Alderson no good to get rid of him when his value is at an all time low.

4. Change the culture. This might be the most important. The culture around the Mets’ organization is a disaster right now.

Alderson must figure out a way to reconnect the team with its fanbase. In my 25 years of following New York baseball I have never seen the Mets fans as disconnected and infuriated with the organization as they are now.

Alderson has the ability to do all four with the Mets. He brings structureto the Mets and most importantly, he sounds like he has a clear plan of what he wants to do.

When asked the question of whether or not the Mets will be players in the free agent market, Alderson said, “We will be aggressive in the free agent market this year?  Not likely”.

That small answer tells me that Alderson has an idea of what is going on at Citi Field and realizes that building through high priced free agents that only fill one spot on the roster isn’t the way to go. That was Omar Minaya’s philosophy and it never worked.

Now, all is not perfect with Alderson. There are some questions that surround him.

First, the guy hasn’t been a GM of a Major League team in almost 12 years. I am sure being a GM is like riding a bike, but will his way of doing things that worked 20 years ago still work today?

Second, the guy is 63. Is he in it for the long run or is this just a short term job for Alderson? If it is a short term job, then he needs to groom someone to take over when he leaves like he did with Billy Beane in Oakland.

I think these are certainly fair questions, but I think Alderson was the right hire for the Mets. The Mets need order and stability right now and Alderson certainly brings that.

One last footnote to this. 3-1 odds that Bob Melvin is the next manager of the Mets.

You can follow The Ghost of Moonlight Graham on Twitter @ theghostofmlg

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Down two games to none in the World Series, the Texas Rangers desperately needed some home cookin’, and more importantly needed a win in Game 3. The guy they relied on for a big performance was Colby Lewis and like in his three postseason games prior, Lewis delivered.

Lewis gave up just five hits, two runs, walked two and struck out five in 7.2 innings of work as he helped the Rangers defeat the Giants 4-2 on Saturday night. The Giants now lead the best-of-seven series 2-1.

I thought Lewis’ start was more like his Game 2 start against the New York Yankees than his Game 6 start. Lewis danced through raindrops in that Game 2 start, and I thought he did the same thing on Saturday.

Lewis only gave up five hits and two runs, but it could have been a lot worse. He left a lot of balls right out over the plate and somehow avoided serious damage all night.

According to PitchFx, Lewis threw 57 sliders and curves in Game 3. Take a look at his pitch chart, notice how many of those pitches he left up…

Lewis left an insane amount of sliders and curves not only over the middle of the plate, but up in the zone. How he didn’t get hurt more than he did is a mystery to me.

The two mistakes he did get caught on were an inside fastball to Cody Ross and a right down the middle fastball to Andres Torres. After this postseason, I don’t think any pitcher is going to throw a fastball on purpose to the inner half of the plate to Ross. He has manhandled that pitch all postseason.

Lewis is now 3-0 with a 2.35 ERA and 24 K’s in four postseason starts. If there is a Game 7, it will most likely be Lewis taking the mound for the Rangers.

While Lewis was doing it on the mound, the Ranger offense just did enough to get by.

The first big blow for the Rangers came from Mitch Moreland in the second. After fouling off four tough pitches, Moreland hit a frozen rope over the rightfield wall for a three-run HR. Why Buster Posey would call an inside fastball in that spot was a little puzzling.

Josh Hamilton added to the lead in the fifth when he hit a hanging curve from Jonathan Sanchez into the right center field seats. Sanchez put that pitch on a platter for Hamilton and he didn’t miss it.

Here are some other observations from Game 3…

The Giants are going to have quite the decision on their hands if this series goes seven games. Sanchez was terrible for the second straight game and if this series goes seven, he is slated to start.

Sanchez only lasted 4.2 innings, and gave up four runs on six hits and three walks. Sanchez is so Jekyll and Hyde that I don’t think Bruce Bochy can go to him in a Game 7.

The Giants’ hitters weren’t much better.

Three World Series games and eight strike outs in nine AB’s. This is the Pat Burrell Tampa Bay Rays fans knew to grow and love.

While Tim McCarver thought Nelson Cruz made a poor baserunning play in the bottom of the second, I thought he made the right decision.

Here was the setting: Cruz was on third with one out and the infield was playing back. Jeff Francoeur hit a slow roller up along third. Instead of going home, Cruz went back to third. Juan Uribe looked Cruz back and then threw out Francoeur at first.

Okay, here is my take on this. Uribe fielded the ball right in front of third. If Cruz goes home off of contact, he would have been out by 20 feet. The contact play clearly wasn’t on and instead of having a runner on first with two outs, the Rangers still had a runner on third with one out. Maybe it’s me, but I would rather have the latter.

Can someone please tell Ron Washington it’s the World Series. Despite Darren O’Day getting the job done in the eighth, I still can’t believe Washington refuses to go to Feliz for a four-out save.

I will have to admit, I didn’t mind it when Washington left Lewis in the game to face Aubrey Huff in the eighth. Yes, Torres just hit a HR. And yes, Edgar Renteria hit a rope to left for an out. But Huff didn’t represent the tying or go-ahead run, so let the guy try to finish things out.

However, once Lewis hit Huff, Washington has to go to Neftali Feliz. Who do I want pitching the most important AB of the game? O’Day or Feliz? I will take Feliz for $1,000 Alex.

I was completely shocked Bochy went to Ramon Ramirez in the bottom of the eighth in a 4-2 game. I didn’t think he would see the mound again in this season unless it was a blowout.

If you told the casual fan after watching last night’s game that Pablo Sandoval hit .330 last year, they would laugh at you. He has zero and I mean ZERO confidence at the plate right now.

Moreland had 145 AB’s during the regular season, so he won’t qualify for the Rookie of the Year award in 2011, but not being up for the award aside, Moreland should be good for a .260-.270 average with 20 plus HRs.

Words can’t describe how big Game 4 is on Sunday. The difference between 2-2 and 3-1 can’t be understated. The Rangers will have Tommy Hunter on the mound trying to tie the series, and the Giants will have rookie Madison Bumgarner on the mound trying to give them a 3-1 series lead.

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In no particular order, here are the factors that led to the end result in Game 2 of the World Series.

1. Bruce Bochy is pushing all the right buttons.

2. Ron Washington doesn’t even know where the buttons are to push.

3. The Texas Rangers’ bullpen had a complete meltdown.

4. Matt Cain.

5. The San Francisco Giants have some serious mojo working.

All of these factors led to the Giants pummeling the Rangers for the second night in a row as San Francisco beat Texas 9-0 and now the Giants hold a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven World Series. While at first glance this game seemed to be a blowout from the start, that wasn’t always the case.

It wasn’t the case until Ron Washington thought he was managing a game in July against the Seattle Mariners instead of Game 2 of the World Series.

This game was a great pitchers duel up until the bottom of the eighth inning. Both Cain and C.J. Wilson were very good in this game. Believe it or not, I thought Wilson was a little better in this game than Cain. However, Cain was able to avoid major mistakes, while Wilson made just two, but it cost him.

In the bottom of the eighth, Darren O’Day got the first two batters of the inning in relatively easy fashion and it looked like the Rangers were going to get a chance to hit while they were still in the game. Yeah, that never happened.

O’Day served up a single to Buster Posey and Washington went to his bullpen and summoned Derek Holland. That’s when all heck broke loose.

Holland walked Nate Schierholtz on four pitches. Then he walked Cody Ross on four pitches.

For whatever reason, Holland had a complete meltdown. With the score still 2-0, Washington needed to go another pitcher. More importantly, he needed to go Neftali Feliz.

Instead, Washington stuck with Holland and Holland proceeded to walk another guy. He did show improvement however by actually throwing a strike to Huff. The 3-1 pitch to Huff was probably a strike, but when a pitcher throws 11 straight balls, there ain’t no way he is getting a close call.

Washington finally pulled the poor kid, but brought in Mark Lowe. Really? Mark Lowe, Ron Washington? Really?

The same Lowe who only pitched three innings in a Rangers uniform in 2010. The same Lowe who had an ERA of 12 of those three innings. I am pretty confident in saying Lowe probably isn’t the guy Ranger fans wanted pitching high leverage innings in the World Series.

With the score 3-0, Washington has to keep the game close. Going to the 11th man in your bullpen instead of your first, makes zero sense.

Washington has a very bad habit of only using pitchers in their defined roles and never, ever deviating from them. That’s okay when it’s the middle of July and you are just trying to get through the regular season, but in the World Series, it’s all hands on deck no matter what.

Washington went with Lowe and he get shelled. He walked Juan Uribe, an almost impossible task, and then gave up a two-run single to Edgar Renteria and this game was over.

The Giants scored three more runs off of Michael Kirkman to really add insult to injury. This game went from a nail biter to a clown show in a matter of minutes.

Here are some other observations from Game 2

Cain has pitched 21.1 scoreless innings to start his postseason career. He is pitching at a very high level right now and with him is Tim Lincecum, the Giants have a ridiculous one-two punch.

Bochy can do no wrong. In the top of the seventh, he inserts Schierholtz for defense and puts him in right. Of course, the second batter of the inning rips one to right center that Schierholtz runs down. Chances are Cody Ross, who moved from right to left, doesn’t get to that ball.

Giants have some serious mojo working right now. Ian Kinsler hit a bomb to center field in the top of the fifth that hit off the very, very top of the center field wall and somehow bounced back into the field of play.

The ball almost defied logic. Instead of a 1-1 game, Kinsler was standing at second and he never scored.

Rangers had second and third with one out in the sixth and didn’t score. If the Rangers continue to go 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position, they might be looking at a sweep.

Wilson made one mistake and that was to Renteria in the bottom of the fifth. That ball was crushed.

The Giants featured Tony Bennett and Steve Perry in the two home games. That is going to be hard for the Rangers to beat.

The pitch for Cain all night was the slider. He threw 25 of them and Ranger batters for 1-for-6 against the pitch.

The most unbelievable part of Holland’s meltdown in the eighth was that nobody came to the mound until the 10th ball out of the strike zone. Elvis Andrus finally went to the mound to attempt to calm down Holland after the 10th ball. Talk about an entire coaching staff falling asleep at the wheel.

The Rangers are in a hole, but not an impossible one to get out of. I do think they need to sweep in these next three games at home in order to win the series. Can’t see them being down 3-2 in the series and winning the final two games in San Francisco.

Game 3 will be Saturday night in Texas and the pitching matchup will be Jonathan Sanchez against Colby Lewis.

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This upcoming offseason marks an offseason of transition for the Tampa Bay Rays. It’s all but a forgone conclusion that they will lose Carl Crawford and Rafael Soriano to free agency and they may lose 1B Carlos Pena as well (though I think he will re-sign).

Not only may they lose Crawford and Pena, but because of budget constraints, the Rays may be forced to cut payroll in 2011. In the offseason, the Rays may look to trade James Shields, Matt Garza, B.J. Upton or Jason Bartlett.

For the purposes of this post, I wanted to focus on Bartlett. I think with Reid Brignac in the mix for the Rays, Bartlett may be the one who gets shipped out of town.

If that’s the case, let’s look at the pros, cons, and who may be interested in the former Oklahoma Sooner.

Pros

If there is a team interested in a steady, but unspectacular shortstop, then Barlett might be there guy. If we are just talking about shortstops, then Barlett has been one of the more consistent ones over the past three seasons. Here is where Barlett ranks amongst his fellow shortstops…

SB – 5th (61)

OPS – 7th (.752)

AVG – 8th (.288)

WAR – 10th (7.4)

A lot of Bartlett’s overall success over the last three seasons can be attributed to his breakout 2009 season. Bartlett hit .320 with a career high 14 HR, 30 SB, and .879 OPS.

It looked as if Bartlett finally turned the corner offensively, but then…

Cons

His 2010 season was less than stellar. If you take out Bartlett’s 2009 season, he has averaged a .284/.343/.369 hitting line with three HR throughout his career. Well, that was pretty much in line with what Bartlett produced in 2010.

Bartlett hit .254/.324/.350 with four HR in 135 games. Outside of his low average, everything else fell into place.

A GM has to ask himself if his 2009 season was an aberration or if Bartlett had a really down year because he seemed to be hurt all the time. It’s a fair question, but I think 2009 was just an aberration.

Speaking of hurt all the time, Barlett has never played more than 140 games in a season. On the flip side, someone like Orlando Cabrera has played in 150 games eight out of the last 10 years.

I always viewed Bartlett as one of the “good glove, no hit” shortstops, but statistically that’s not even the case. In the last three years, of the 18 shortstops that qualify defensively, Bartlett ranks 17th in terms of UZR (-13.9).

In Bartlett’s defense, I have watched him on a pretty consistent basis over the past three or four seasons and I don’t believe that he is that bad. He gets to all the plays he needs to.

As for Barlett’s contract, he is a third-time arbitration eligible player. He earned $4 million last year and stands to earn more than that in 2011. Considering that he produced around $11 million in value on average to the Rays in his three years on the team, it’s not such a bad deal.

Of course, a lot of that production and value is tied into his 2009 season. He produced like a $22 million player that season.

Now that we have looked at the pros and cons of the soon-to-be 31-year-old, let’s take a look at the teams who might be interested in trading for him…

Detroit Tigers: The Tigers have a $7 million option on Jhonny Peralta and are expected to decline. They are also expected to try to resign Peralta at a more cost effective (corporate term for “cheaper”) rate, but if the two sides can’t come to an agreement, Bartlett could be an option.

Seattle Mariners: Jack Wilson is god awful. Bartlett or anybody for that matter, would be an upgrade over him.

Baltimore Orioles: I think the Cesar Izturis experiment is over in Baltimore. The Orioles figure to be better than they were in 2011 and surrounding their young players like Josh Bell with veterans isn’t the worst idea in the world.

Cincinnati Reds: Orlando Cabrera has a $4 million option that like Peralta, will most likely be declined. If the Reds don’t feel Paul Janish is the answer at short, Bartlett could be an option.

San Francisco Giants: Both Edgar Renteria and Juan Uribe are free agents after the World Series. I would guess the Giants will bring back Uribe, but Bartlett would be a nice replacement for the National League champs.

Washington Nationals: Bartlett could used the same way Ivan Rodriguez was used in Washington last year. He could be a guy that nurtures Washington’s young infield talent like Ian Desmond and Danny Espinosa.

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With the New York Yankees officially eliminated from postseason play, it’s time to take a look at some of the moves they will make in the offseason.

One of the potential moves that has been swirling around the rumor mill here in New York is that the Yankees may look to trade Nick Swisher.

The thought process here is that the Yankees would trade Swisher in order to sign either Jayson Werth or Carl Crawford, who are both free agents. It makes sense, as I would rather have either Werth or Crawford over Swisher any day of the week and twice on Sunday.

If the Yankees were to trade Swisher, there are sure to be some suitors. Let’s take a look at the pros, the cons and which teams would be interested in the former Ohio State Buckeye.

Pros

Statistics aside, Swisher is a great addition to any clubhouse. He is a classic glue guy, and when you hear teammates talk about Swisher in interviews, they can’t say enough about how Swisher brings a positive vibe to the team.

Now on to the statistics.

If a GM is a fan of Moneyball, then Swisher is his guy. Swisher is a base on balls machine, and has finished in the top six in walks four of the past five seasons.

Swisher also has very good power. He has hit 20-plus HRs in each of his first six full seasons in the major leagues.

For those of you who think Swisher’s revival in a Yankee uniform is a product of Yankee Stadium, it’s not. Swisher played in 75 games each home and away and hit .287/.356/.498 with 15 HRs at home and .290/.363/.524 with 14 HRs on the road.

Swisher has one year and $9 million remaining on his contract with a $10.25 million club option for 2012. For the Yankees, that’s like having a guy on the team making the league minimum, but for any other team, it’s a fair contract.

He has earned $15.75 million over the last two years, and according to FanGraphs he has been around $31 million worth of value to the Yankees over that time period.

His deal is not the most team-friendly in the league, but it’s not an albatross either.

Cons

The 2010 season marked a change in Swisher’s overall approach at the plate. He saw a seven percent drop in his BB percentage from 2009 (16 to 9.1), but in turn he saw his batting average increase by almost 40 points from 2009 (.249 to .288).

However, while his batting average increase may look impressive at first, Swisher was aided by an almost unsustainable .335 BABIP.

So if you think about it, if Swisher isn’t walking as much and chances are he won’t be as lucky in 2011 as he was in 2010, then you are looking at a player that will resemble his first full year with the Oakland A’s (.236/.322/.446) more than the player with the Yankees the last two years.

One of the main reasons the Yankees have been rumored to have soured on Swisher is because of his poor postseason play. For the second year in a row, Swisher was dreadful in the postseason, and for his career he is a .162 hitter over 33 playoff games. Numbers like that don’t cut the mustard in Yankee land.

Lastly, Swisher is a terrible defensive player. Having watched him over the past two seasons on a regular basis, most fly balls to right are an adventure.

Swisher is leaning towards being a DH, but a good team can get away with putting him at right or first for a full season.

Now that we have looked at the pros and cons of the soon to be 30-year-old, let’s take a look at who might be interested in Swisher this offseason…

Detroit Tigers

The Tigers have plenty of holes to fill and plenty of money to spend. The Tigers will not pick up Magglio Ordonez‘s $15 million option in 2011, and if Detroit and Ordonez can’t agree on a way to bring him back, Swisher could be an alternative in right.

Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim

Hideki Matsui is a free agent, and if the Angels decide not to bring him back, Swisher could be an option at DH. The Angels could also decide to put Bobby Abreu at DH and move Swisher to left field.

Seattle Mariners

I don’t see the Mariners picking up the $9 million on Swisher’s contract, but the Mariners are really desperate for offense and can use all the help they can get. They could use Swisher at first base as a stopgap until Justin Smoak is ready for prime time, or as a replacement for Milton Bradley at the DH spot if the Mariners decide not to keep him around.

Atlanta Braves

The Braves recently cut former Yankee Melky Cabrera, so perhaps they want to try their hand at Swisher. The Braves need outfield help, and Swisher could fill a hole in left field.

Troy Glaus and Derrek Lee are both free agents, and if the Braves feel Freddie Freeman isn’t ready yet, they could look at Swisher for first base in 2011.

Chicago Cubs

The Cubs probably need to unload salaries, not take them on, but they really don’t have a first baseman or right fielder at this point, and Swisher, a Midwest guy, wouldn’t be a bad choice to fill either of those holes.

Kosuke Fukudome isn’t the answer in right, and Xavier Nady isn’t the answer at first. Tyler Colvin could be the answer at first but has never done so at the professional level.

San Diego Padres

The Padres had one of the worst-hitting outfields in baseball in 2010. In 2011, the Padres will have Ryan Ludwick in right and will need a better option in left than Will Venable or Scott Hairston. Swisher could be that guy.

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Normally I don’t write about pitching coaches, but in this case I will make an exception because I do believe it’s a big deal.

The St. Louis Cardinals announced on Monday at the pitching coach Dave Duncan has signed a two-year contract with a mutual option for 2013. This is pretty big news, and good news if you are a fan of the Red Birds.

As I wrote in my Managerial News and Notes post last week, Duncan is the engine that makes the Cardinals successful as an organization. What he does with these castoffs and misfit pitchers that he deals with is unbelievable.

His resume speaks for itself. Dave Stewart, Storm Davis, Mike Moore, Chris Carpenter, Joel Pineiro, Jeff Suppan and Jeff Weaver. All these pitchers have one thing in common—Duncan turned their careers around and made them, in some cases, Cy Young caliber pitchers.

Duncan will return to a team that, baring an unforeseen trade, will feature Carpenter, Adam Wainwright and Jaime Garcia at the top of the rotation. That is a solid threesome and one of the best in the National League.

It’s the last two spots in the Cardinals rotation where Duncan is going to earn his money. The Cardinals are working hard to bring back Jake Westbrook, who they acquired from the Cleveland Indians and had a 3.48 ERA in 12 starts.

If the Cardinals can bring him back, he would give the Cardinals four solid starters going into 2010. What they do for a fifth starter is anyone’s guess.

First shot would go to Kyle Lohse, who is in the middle of the four-year, $41 million contract he signed a little over a year ago. With $23 million remaining on his contract, Duncan will be asked to work his magic and try to revive Lohse’s career. That’s a very tall task.

Duncan has been in Tony LaRussa’s corner for the past 15 years.

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I must have missed the memo when Vladimir Guerrero turned into the Buddy Biancalana of the Texas Rangers.

Joe Girardi kept walking Josh Hamilton and walking and walking him to get to Guerrero. This is the same Guerrero that hit .300/.345/.496 with 29 HR’s in the regular season. At some point Vlad was going to make Girardi pay for walking Hamiltion.

Hamilton was the ALCS MVP

That moment came in the fifth inning of Game 6 of the ALCS.

With Mitch Moreland on third and two outs, Girardi intentionally walked Hamilton to get to Vlad. New York Yankees’ pitcher Phil Hughes preceded to leave a hanging curveball out over the plate in which Vlad roped into the left-centerfield gap.

Just like that, we went from a 1-1 game to a 3-1 Rangers lead.

I can somewhat understand Girardi always walking Hamilton, but I would also venture to say the odds of Hamilton getting a hit in all those AB’s he was walked is greater than Vlad coming through just once with an extra-base hit or single.

With the score 3-1, here is where I feel once again Girardi proved to be a terrible X’s and O’s manager. Girardi pulled Hughes to bring in David Robertson to face Nelson Cruz.

Really?

This is the same Robertson who was tagged for five runs in a third of an inning in Game 3. This situation called for either Joba Chamberlain or even Kerry Wood, not the Yankees fourth best righty out of the pen.

This was the most critical time in the game. The Yankees are fighting for their playoff lives and this clown is playing like it’s a game in the middle of the regular season against the Baltimore Orioles.

Robertson threw a batting practice fastball down the middle of the plate and 425 feet later, the Rangers had a 5-1 lead. Game over. Series over.

The game and series was over at this point because the Yankee lineup laid down against Colby Lewis.

The Yankees deviated from their normal game plan of talking pitches, working the count and trying to get into the opposing team’s bullpen.

Instead, the Yankees approach in Game 6 was to swing at anything and everything. The tone of their lineup was set when Derek Jeter swung at the first pitch of the game and grounded weakly to third.

The Yankees allowed Lewis to throw only 102 pitches in eight innings of work as they morphed into the free-swinging Kansas City Royals for a night. But I think this night went deeper than just a bad approach at the plate. I think this went into the mindset of these recent Yankee squads.

Ever since the Yankees went into buying the best free agents mode—which essentially started in 2002—they have become a bunch of bullies. Bullies that beat on the weaker teams during the regular season, but when a playoff team punches the Yankees back, they fold like a cheap suit.

Take a look at every playoff year since 2002. Every year with the exception of last year (I will get to that in a second), the Yankees have been punched in the mouth in the playoffs. And every year, the Yankees don’t have the ability to recover from it.

Of course Yankee fans will say “But we won the World Series last year with almost the same exact team.” While this is true, last year’s team wasn’t challenged and everything, and I mean everything, fell into place for them.

They played a Minnesota Twins team that had nothing left after playing a play-in game against the Detroit Tigers. They faced a Los Angeles Angels team that was at the end of their run.

And in the World Series, they played a Philadelphia Phillies team with one starting pitcher and no closer.

On top of that, they could get away without pitching Phil Hughes twice because they had the luxury of an off day between Game 4 and 5 in the ALCS and World Series.

My point is, nobody challenged the Yankees last year.

I could go on and on with examples of the Detroit Tigers in 2006 or the Florida Marlins in 2003 or the Boston Red Sox of 2004, challenging the Yankees in a series and them not being able to handle it.

Do you think the Paul O’Neil and Tino Martinez led Yankees would have allowed a good, but not great pitcher like Lewis to completely manhandle them like that like he did on Friday night?

There isn’t a chance in hell that would have happened.

The Yankees punched the Rangers in the mouth with their comeback in Game 1, but the Rangers punched back in Game 2 and the Yankees never recovered. They thought the Rangers would fold like the Twins did and it never happened.

This was a six game series that felt like a sweep. That is how one-sided this series became.

Congratulations to the Rangers for winning the American League pennant. Coming into this postseason, the Rangers never won a postseason series.

Now they are playing for a World Series title.

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Even the great ones need a hand sometimes.

Roy Halladay and Tim Lincecum were supposed to be the stars in Game 5 Thursday night, but it was the Philadelphia Phillies’ bullpen that lent Halladay a hand and stole the show Thursday night as the Phillies staved off elimination and beat the San Francisco Giants 4-2.

The Giants now lead the best-of-seven NLCS 3-2.

This game was very similar to Game 1 in which both Lincecum and Halladay were good, but neither was great. I would venture to say Lincecum out-pitched Halladay, but it was one inning that did him in.

Lincecum gave up three runs in the third thanks to a bloop single by Raul Ibanez, a hit batter, a bunt that was foul, but was called fair and then a big error by first baseman Aubrey Huff.

The big play of the inning was the Halladay bunt that was foul, but was called fair by home plate umpire Jeff Nelson. The bunt was not even a foot in front of Nelson, so I am not sure how he missed it.

Buster Posey picked up the ball and tried to get Ibanez at third, but Pablo Sandoval couldn’t get to the bag in time and Ibanez was safe. Carlos Ruiz advanced to second and now the Phillies were set up with second and third and one out.

Interesting note about this play. Halladay didn’t run to first right away. Eventually he just jogged to first.

At the time, I thought to myself, how could he not run to first and try to help himself out? The reason he didn’t run was because, as Charlie Manuel later revealed in his press conference, Halladay pulled his groin the inning before.

The next batter was Shane Victorino, and he grounded sharply to first. The ball hit off Huff’s glove and knee and ricocheted out into right field.

Keith Hernandez Huff is not.

The Phillies added an all important third run in the inning and took a 3-1 lead.

From there, Halladay took over. Well, sort of.

Halladay was by no means great in this game. When Halladay walked Andres Torres to lead off the game, you just knew Doc wasn’t on top of his game.

Halladay went six innings mainly because the Giants did a good job of running up his pitch count. Halladay gave up six hits, two runs, two walks and struck out five. Not a classic Halladay performance, but it was good enough.

After Halladay departed, the bullpen did the rest.

Jose Contreras, J.C. Romero, Ryan Madson and Brad Lidge were the hot knives and the Giants batters were butter. The foursome combined to pitch three innings of one-hit, no-run baseball, while striking out five.

Madson was the most impressive of the bunch. I thought he would be tired after throwing 37 pitches the night before, but he went through Buster Posey, Pat Burrell and Cody Ross with no problem. He struck them out on just 13 pitches.

Overall, this might have been the best game the Phillies have played from top to bottom this series. Now they head home and it wouldn’t shock me or anyone else if they come back to win this series.

Game 4 will be Saturday.

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Cross another would-be free agent off the list.

The other day, we saw free agent LHP Ted Lilly re-sign with the Los Angeles Dodgers, and on Thursday we saw a third baseman re-sign with his current club and not test the free agent waters.

Brandon Inge, a free agent to be, decided to re-sign with the Detroit Tigers. Inge signed a two-year, $11.5 million contract with a $6 million club option for 2013 according to MLB.com’s John Beck.

Inge, 33, hit .237/.307/.394 with 13 HRs in 144 games with the Tigers. Inge’s .718 OPS ranked 15th amongst Major League third basemen in 2010.

I like Inge; I really do. I think despite his numbers not landing him in the positive column for sabermetricians, he is a very good guy to have on a team and in a clubhouse.

Every team needs a glue guy on their roster. Inge is the Tigers’ glue guy.

That being said (cue Larry David), I don’t think I would have given Inge a two-year deal. It’s a very simple question. Would Inge have gotten a two-year deal on the open market?

The answer is no.

I think $5.5 million for Inge is a fair deal. He’s been around that value during the course of his career. However, in this day and age of veterans being phased out of baseball, Inge would have only gotten a one-year this offseason.

This year’s crop of third base free agents is weak, so perhaps the Tigers didn’t want to spend $10-15 million a year on Adrian Beltre and will spend their budget—all $60 million of it—on someone else like Adam Dunn or Cliff Lee.

If that’s their plan, then that’s their prerogative. I just wouldn’t have guaranteed Inge a second year.

You can follow The Ghost of Moonlight Graham on Twitter @ theghostofmlg

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The Philadelphia Phillies have nobody to blame for their Game 4 loss to the San Francisco Giants but themselves.

The Phillies made a series of coaching mistakes and mental mistakes and lost to the Giants 6-5 in Game 4 and now face a 3-1 series hole as they head into Game 4 and a rematch of Tim Lincecum and Roy Halladay.

Let’s take a look at the Phillies’ mistakes in this game.It started for the Phillies in the fifth inning. With runners on second and third and one out, Shane Victorino singled up the middle. Ben Francisco scored and Carlos Ruiz was thrown at home.

There is absolutely no way Sam Perlozzo can send Ruiz in that spot. The ball that Victorino hit was a sharp groundball up the middle. It wasn’t a 30-hopper that just barely made it through.

Perlozzo has to be 100 percent sure that Ruiz is going to score. Runs have been too precious in this series to be careless in that situation. Instead of having runners on first and third with one out, the Phillies had just a runner on first with two outs.

Something that was overlooked on that play—how is Victorino not on second? There was no chance of the throw from Aaron Rowand being cut off. Victorino had to be on second.

It didn’t end up hurting the Phillies that Victorino wasn’t on second because of Placido Polanco‘s double, but it’s plays or lack thereof that have made me scratch my head in this series.

Then in the eighth, how does Manuel not bunt with Jimmy Rollins at the plate and Jayson Werth on second with nobody out? I thought Charlie Manuel said before the game his team was going to play “small ball?”

That was a must-bunt situation for Manuel. Rollins hasn’t done much and Manuel had to believe that Francisco and Ruiz could have gotten the run home with less than two outs.

Now, people will say it didn’t matter because Francisco and Ruiz struck out after Rollins popped up. Having a runner on third completely changes the dynamic of the inning and perhaps the pitch selection to both batters.

The biggest decision by Manuel in this game was his decision to bring in Roy Oswalt to start the ninth. At the time, I didn’t have a problem with it. Then I found out he threw a bullpen session earlier in the day and I almost fell off my chair.

Manuel was going to make a guy throw a bullpen session in the afternoon and then come out in the ninth in a tie game later that night on two days’ rest? No thanks.

Oswalt wasn’t sharp and gave up the game-winning run when Juan Uribe hit a deep flyball to left that scored Aubrey Huff. Speaking of that Uribe at-bat, it was another mental mistake by the Phillies.

Uribe has a bad wrist and couldn’t catch up to Oswalt’s fastball in the AB. Why on Earth would Ruiz call a change-up and Oswalt agree to throw it? The only thing they are doing is helping Uribe out. Terrible.

Here are some other observations from Game 4…

Joe Blanton threw two wild pitches in 175.2 regular season innings and threw two wild pitches in the first inning of Game 4.

Despite his less than stellar performance (three runs in 4.2 IP), I still believe it was the right decision to start Blanton over Halladay.

The Tampa Bay Rays took SS Tim Beckham with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2008 Draft when they needed a catcher. Fail.

Home plate umpire Wally Bell was all over the place.

Can the Phillies come back from this 3-1 deficit? Absolutely. With Halladay, Oswalt, and Cole Hamels in the next three games, they have a very good chance of coming back.

You can follow The Ghost of Moonlight Graham on Twitter @ theghostofmlg

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